Protection
by tombombadillo
Summary: "I don't think it's me she's protecting." (puggy!universe)


**This was originally supposed to be Kate pretends that she is completely indifferent to Latte, when actually she's just in love with the pug as Castle is. But then it took an unexpected turn and ended up somewhere completely and utterly different. So, yeah. I'm not complaining. Apart from the face I have been trying to write this for a good two weeks now, and the ending kinda sucks, but I'm tired and yeah.**

**Disclaimer: I've spent most of the day watching Grey's Anatomy and wondering why Meredith and Derek get all the steamy sex scenes.**

* * *

Kate stands there, leaning against the kitchen counter with the bowl of cereal in her hands. She's attempting to eat her muesli before getting on with her day, but it seems that the damn pug is determined to get in her way at every step. Like now, Latte is sat on her feet, looking up at Kate imploringly.

"I'm not giving you my breakfast." She grumbles, lifting her foot up and causing Latte to slide to one side. "You've had yours. Let me have mine."

Latte walks around to the back of her legs, and proceeds to head butt her. Kate growls, making Latte start for a moment. Really, what is so appealing about the thing? She's small and chubby and her head looks like she was hit by a shovel, and what the hell was she even thinking when she let Castle bring that thing home? All she does is pee on everything. So many ruined jackets, and her favourite pairs of shoes too. Oh, Castle so owed her for those.

She moves to the sofa, eyes narrowed as Latte as she does that weird lollop as she follows her. Kate tucks her legs up underneath her hoping to avoid the dog, but Latte has somehow managed to perfect the art of getting up without any help. Kate sighs as Latte flops down next to her, head resting on her calf, eyes big and brown and _damnit._

"Okay, maybe you're a little bit cute." Latte wrinkles her nose against her bare skin, cold and wet and Kate pushes her away. "Come back when your nose is warm."

To be fair to her, Latte does move, and sits on the other cushion, still staring at her. Kate tries to ignore her, tries and tries and manages to get through three spoonfuls of muesli before she caves. She holds out some soggy oats on the tip of her finger towards Latte, who takes a couple of hops forward and takes the food from her finger with the tip of her tongue, swallows it without even chewing. Kate reaches out to scratch her head, only smiling a _little bit_ as Latte's eyes close and her head tilts towards the movement of her fingers.

"Hm, you're not so bad really, are you?"

Latte wags her tail.

* * *

"Oh, she's so cute!" The little old lady in the grocery store coos, and Kate is reasonably sure if she could she'd be pinching Latte's cheeks. "How old is she?"

"She's a year and a half, I think." Kate replied, trying to balance the basket on one arm and Latte in the other.

The latter is adamant on wriggling around, trying to get down so she can sniff at whatever tantalising smells are currently surrounding them. She only bought Latte with her because she knew she needed a walk, not because she knew Latte hated being by herself and couldn't bare the idea of leaving the tiny, defenceless animal all on her own.

"What's she called?"

"Latte. My partner's idea of a joke."

"You don't like coffee?"

Kate laughed. "No, just the opposite. He says I drink too much of it."

The old lady observed her with a twinkling eye, a look that Kate wasn't entirely comfortable with. "I'd switch to decaf, if I were you."

"Wha- what do you mean?"

"You've got the look, my dear. I've had it, my daughter has had it. My son's girlfriend has it so badly. It's not hard to recognise when you know what you're looking for." She patted Kate's arm, gave Latte a scratch behind her ear. "You haven't noticed the changes yet, but you will."

Kate opened her mouth, completely flabbergasted at everything the old woman was saying, but nothing was coming out. She was completely tongue tied. She's not. She can't be.

"I'm sorry, dear. I didn't mean to frighten you. I don't have a filter, you know. Anything that pops into my brain, woops, I say it. Forgive me."

Kate shook her head. "No, no it's fine. I'm fine. Took me by surprise, that's all. It's not every day when someone comes along and hints at the fact you might be pregnant."

* * *

She's not panicking. She most definitely isn't panicking because of some silly stuff some strange old lady in an aisle in the grocery store. And her stomach is just as flat as it was yesterday, and the day before that, and even last month. And she looks just the same. There is no different look. Kate knows how she looks, she sees herself in the mirror every day and there is definitely no look. Not a look that is different from her other looks. Nope. Definitely not panicking. She tugs her shirt down, examines herself from the side. No, there isn't any single sign of a bump.

"I'm being ridiculous, aren't I?" she tells Latte, who stares at her with those big, dark eyes. "Totally ridiculous." Latte blinked up at her, regarding her carefully, before turning away and plodding away through the door and into Castle's study. Kate huffs. "Completely ridiculous."

* * *

He comes home expecting an annoyed Kate and an overly excited pug, but what he does see is Kate, asleep. And Latte, who is curled up on top of her thigh, head resting on her lower abdomen. She's not asleep, just lying there. Waiting for someone. Waiting for him? For Kate to wake up. He strips off his jacket and leaves it on the coffee table, perches on the armrest. Latte still doesn't move, just tilts her head towards him.

"You run out of energy, Latte?" he laughs, stretching over to run a hand over the dome of her head. "What's with the lack of enthusiastic greeting?"

Kate grunted, blinked her eyes open. "Sorry, tired. How were the meetings?"

"Dull and boring and completely useless. How was your day? Did you do anything productive?"

"I went grocery shopping. It was very… interesting."

"In what way?"

"Strange old lady in the cereal aisle. She was admiring Latte."

Castle balanced himself so he could lean over and look at her, amusement glinting in his eyes. "You took Latte grocery shopping with you?"

Kate reached up and swatted at him. "That's so not the point."

"Okay, okay. What was so interesting and strange about this old lady?"

"She told me I had a look." Kate started, tilting her head backwards so she could catch Castle's eye. "She said she had it, and her daughter had it, and she recognised it. Jeez, Castle. She almost gave me a heart attack."

"Well, it looks like Latte's keeping an eye on you. Even though you're the last person who probably needs protecting. She didn't even greet me at the door."

"I don't think… it's me that she's protecting." Kate replied quietly, almost reverently, stroking a hand across the dogs back. "Ever since I got back from the store, she's never been that far away from me. And then I lay down on the sofa, and she came over and lay on me. She doesn't do that, Castle. If you're not there then she'll go for a cushion, or the blanket." Castle is quiet for a few moments, the loft soundless bar their soft breathing. Kate can feel the tension radiating off him, can practically see the cogs turning in his mind. Calculating and thinking, and probably a little panic – "Castle, please say something."

"I… do you… I mean… you'd know… right?" he flounders, sliding off the arm rest and to his knees next to her. "We'd know."

Kate shrugged, pressed her hands against her eyes. "I don't know, Castle."

"Kate-"

"We can do this, right? I mean, we've been living together for the past year, we've been looking after a dog for eight months. We can have a kid, right? If I am… if we are…"

"We've gone through worse."

Kate huffed a laugh. "What's a kid compared to a gunshot?"

"And explosions, and serial killers and cover ups and-"

"Okay, okay, I get the point."

"You're panicking, aren't you?"

"No," Kate insists, turning her head away from him, "Maybe. Just a little bit. Aren't you panicking? Castle, there is the possibility that right now there is a life growing inside me. An actual _person_, and it's part you and part me, and it's this tiny bundle of cells that's going to grow into this tiny little person, and they're going to be our responsibility. Castle, that's… it's crazy."

"Need I remind you, I've already done this before. And Alexis is absolutely perfect, considering. And this time it's not just me doing it on my own. I've got you to help."

"I always planned on being married before I have kids."

"Well… we could get married."

"Did you tell Meredith that when you discovered Alexis?" Kate asked, looking at him from under her eyebrows. "Because really, if you're going to recycle the same proposal then I am saying no."

"That's good, because I wasn't asking you to marry me. Well, I am. But I'm not."

"Not making any sense, Castle." Kate sighed, sitting up with a grimace. "Talk English."

"Okay, not asking you to marry me. But… saying that we could get married… sometime in the future, if you wanted. I mean, you could say no. If you wanted."

"Isn't that technically asking me?"

Castle shook his head. "No. Definitely not. Which isn't me saying that I don't want to marry you. Quite the opposite. So I _am_ asking you to marry me, I'm just not asking you to _marry_ me."

"What does this mean if I'm not pregnant?" Kate asked, choosing to ignore the complex semantics of that last sentence.

"Then you get to be married before we have kids." He stands up, settles on the part of the sofa that Kate just vacated. He sits sideways, pulls her back into the v of his legs. She follows easily, leans her head back against his collarbone. "And if-"

"-when, Castle. I'm having kids with you one day."

Castle pressed a kiss to the top of her head, tried to stop the smile that was pulling at the corners of his mouth. "Okay, when we have kids. Whether that's in eight months, next year or in five years, we are going to make brilliant parents. And you are going to be a wonderful mother, and we will have the most perfect family, and I will be spoil them rotten and you will tell me off for it. They'll wake us up on Christmas and Birthdays, and make us ridiculously outrageous cards for Father's day and Mother's day, and they'll be stubborn and proud and fierce and they will wreak havoc on the earth."

Kate pressed a hand to the flat plane of her stomach as if she was trying to feel the tiny, miniscule bunch of cells that may or may not be residing in her womb. "Do you want a girl, or a boy?"

"There are far too many girls in my life right now. I am being ganged up on. So, if you could possibly tell that baby that may or may or not be in there to be a boy, I would be very happy."

Kate was silent for a few moments, let Castle drag his fingers up and down her bare arm. "Okay. Possible baby is now a boy."


End file.
